The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast

Meredith Brock:

Well, hello everyone. Thanks for tuning into The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast, where we share biblical truths for any girl in any season. I'm your host, Meredith Brock, and I am here with my co-host, Kaley Olson.

Kaley Olson:

Hey, Meredith, before we talk about today's episode, I need to ask our listeners a favor. OK, guys, if The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast has been helpful to you, will you consider leaving us a written review on Apple Podcasts? Doing so helps us know what we're doing is making a difference in your life and helps increase our reach on podcasting platforms. If you've already left us a written review, then we'd love for you to share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it. All right, that's my spiel there. Now I'm going to tell them about the episode. We just recorded an episode with our friend Ellie Holcomb, who ... What a gem!

Meredith Brock:

I know.

Kaley Olson:

So sweet.

Meredith Brock:

She really is so special.

Kaley Olson:

I love her so much. She may or may not answer a random question about what Disney Princess she would like to be, so you should tune in for that. But after that, you really need to listen to this message, because today Ellie is going to talk to us about how to have hope when we are weary and worn out, which I know if you listen to this episode and you are a mom or you're just a regular person, that's probably you right now, and you need it. What she shares is connected to the Fighting Words Expanded Limited Edition Devotional that just released, and you guys are going to want to get your hands on a copy of her devotional. I walked through it, and Meredith, I know you did too. We walked through the original Fighting Words as a ministry when it released a few years ago, and we all absolutely loved it. With this devotion, you'll get 100 days of devotions written by Ellie, and it's a helpful tool for you to create sustainable rhythms in your life, especially if you found yourself in a slump.

Meredith Brock:

And speaking of rhythms, Kaley, we've also linked a free resource for you from Lysa TerKeurst herself called “The Prayer I Pray Every Morning.” She's talked about this on multiple different events, social media, and enough people have asked about it and for it that we finally decided to make it available. So, our team has designed it into a beautiful printable piece you can download for free today and tuck into your Bible or maybe put on your nightstand, wherever, and use throughout the day. So, I think that's it for us.

Kaley Olson:

That's it.

Meredith Brock:

Let's dive into today's episode. All right, friends, I am excited to welcome our guest for today's episode, Ellie Holcomb. Hi, Ellie.

Ellie Holcomb:

Hi, how are y'all?

Meredith Brock:

We're doing so good.

Kaley Olson:

So good. So happy that you're here with us. What a treat. Guys, Ellie is a longtime friend of the ministry, but for those of you who may not know who she is, allow me the pleasure of introducing her. She's a singer-songwriter with the most beautiful voice, and you may recognize her from her husband's band, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. Ellie is a mom and a published author of two children's books and her devotional called Fighting Words. And, Ellie, before we get into your message, I have a random question that has nothing to do with the Bible, but I want to know it, because you have a pretty voice, and I was like, "I need Ellie to answer this question." So are you ready?

Ellie Holcomb:

Ready. I love this.

Kaley Olson:

OK, amazing. If you could be the voice for any Disney princess, who would you choose, and why?

Ellie Holcomb:

I love it. So, I don't think you understand ... if you could see my face on the video, I would be tearing up, because I love [inaudible].

Kaley Olson:

Oh, no.

Ellie Holcomb:

In just the childlike wonderful way. I would be Belle, because I love her, and I love that she loves books. I used to be an English teacher. I love that she can see the beauty in the beast, beyond what meets the eye. So, I would be Belle. I've always wanted to be her on that ladder, in the library, singing.

Meredith Brock:

I love that.

Kaley Olson:

Maybe one day.

Meredith Brock:

I want you to know that that is my favorite. That is also my very favorite Disney movie.

Kaley Olson:

That's a great one.

Meredith Brock:

It's a great one, because I loved that Belle loved to read, because I also love to read. But funny story. One of my really good friends from high school, when she got married, she walked down the aisle to that song, the Beauty and the Beast song.

Kaley Olson:

“Tale as Old as Time”?

Meredith Brock:

Yes.

Kaley Olson:

That's so sweet.

Meredith Brock:

It is sweet. But, guys, that's also funny, because I was like, "Is she saying he's the beast?"

Kaley Olson:

Beauty and the Beast.

Meredith Brock:

So I kind of gave her a hard time about it [inaudible].

Kaley Olson:

One of our co-workers also danced to that with her dad, and it was kind of the same thing. We were like, "Is he the beast?"

Meredith Brock:

What we are saying with this: What message are you sending? Or not at all. The song is just beautiful.

Kaley Olson:

Yeah. It's a beautiful song.

Ellie Holcomb:

It is a beautiful song.

Meredith Brock:

Yes.

Ellie Holcomb:

It's a “Tale as Old as Time.”

Meredith Brock:

It's as old as time, Ellie. OK, well on that note, Ellie is here to share a message with us from Psalm 119. We really can't wait to hear what you have to say today, Ellie, so take it away.

Ellie Holcomb:

Absolutely. Oh, y'all, I'm so excited to be here with you today. Thank you for listening. One thing that I love ... Well, I love Psalm 119, but one thing that I love about the whole Bible is how honest it is about our human experience in this fallen world. I love the whole Bible, but one place that is especially honest about our experience in this life is Psalm 119. I mean, just look at some of these verses. It's a long chapter in the Bible, maybe the longest. I haven't checked that, but y'all can check me on that later. But just look at some of these verses in Psalm 119. Verse 23 talks about undergoing scorn and contempt from other people. Not fun at all. Verse 23 also talks about experiencing slander from others who are saying untrue things about you, and not just others but like leaders that a lot of people trust. Verse 25 gives voice to how we feel some days when we feel low in the dust, languishing on the ground. I don't know if y'all have ever been there, but I have been literally on my face, on the floor, crying out to the Lord before. So, thankful that that is also in the Bible.

Verse 28, it talks about being weary from sorrow. Who of us has not been weary with sorrow at some point, with the loss of a loved one, with the medical diagnosis that we didn't want, that phone call that nobody's ever ready to hear, with the pain of a shattered dream? And then my goodness, look at verse 51, y'all. It helps us feel understood when we have to deal with arrogant people who mock us or hurt our feelings and their pride. Hello, comment section on Instagram. Has that ever happened to y'all?

Verse 37, look how honest this is: The writer asks God to turn his eyes from looking at worthless things. Y'all, we all know that we sometimes look at worthless stuff all day as we scroll on our phones, and here the psalmist is telling us that this is not a new problem with the invention of iPhones. The writer himself is also struggling with not wasting his time looking at the worthless stuff all day long, and he has to ask God to turn his eyes away for him, because he doesn't have the strength to look away himself. This isn't just a struggle for our generation; it's a struggle for all of us at times, and that feels like a comfort to me. And then look at verse 143, "Trouble and distress have come upon me" (NIV). I mean, I don't know, y'all ... Who has not gone through a valley where trouble and distress drop down on you like a ton of bricks?

And, y'all, this is just a sampling, but doesn't it make you feel so understood? I know it makes me feel like I'm not crazy, and I love how honest God's Word is about our problems, about our sorrows, about our challenges, and then even our sin and brokenness in this life. And all that stuff is just so hard. I mean, we hear Jesus's words in John 10:10, that He came to give us life, and not just life but life to the full. And we believe that, but at the very same time, we struggle still with all these difficulties in life too. Sometimes that life to the full feels just out of reach, doesn't it? We believe Jesus promised it, and we believe He's telling the truth, but how do we grab a hold of it in the struggles of everyday life?

And here's what life to the full is not. I don't know about you, but one thing I'm tempted to do when I'm in a weary season, the kind of season Psalm 119 talks about, is to grab hold of something else to help me get through instead of the abundant life Jesus has promised. It's like I try to define what "life to the full" — in quotation marks, I'm doing that: the quotation marks in the air — what “life to the full” means and then reach for that thing instead of the real thing.

And, y'all, we can all sometimes try to make life to the full mean what we want it to mean. If the problem is financial, we'll try to make life to the full mean like an influx of money. If the problem is relational, we try to make life to the full mean a perfectly patched up relationship. If the problem with the loved one is sickness, then life to the full means the person gets better. Or if the problem is comparison, we try to make life to the full mean that God gives us everything [inaudible] with her life instead of my life.

And listen, God is totally able to do all of those things. Yes, He can provide money when we need it. Yes, He can mend relationships with His power. Yes, He has the power to heal, and sometimes He does. So, I want to thank God for that. I want to acknowledge that. I want to praise Him for that, but that is not always what life to the full means. It doesn't always mean that things go our way or getting exactly the answer to prayer that we wanted. It doesn't mean that the storms disappear forever in this life. And I'm so grateful that over the years what I've learned is that whatever the problem is, life to the full does not mean the solution I want on the other side of that problem. Life to the full is something else, and it's also found in Psalm 119.

What life to the full is, this psalm is honest that in trouble and distress, that those are going to come upon us in this life, but it's also honest about something more that comes to us. If you look at verse 41, and verse 77, 41 says this, "May your unfailing love come to me, Lᴏʀᴅ, your salvation, according to your promise" (NIV). And then in verse 77, "Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight" (NIV). God's unfailing love will always come to you. His salvation has come to you; His compassion has come to you. What He promised in Jesus has come to you and that and more. All of that and more has come to you.

Jesus reiterates that we're going to have trouble in this world. In John 16:33, He acknowledges it. Those troubles will come, and Jesus tells the truth, but Jesus is also the fulfillment of these promises in Psalm 119. I'll say it this way: God knew our troubles and sorrows and weariness and sin. He knew this was our situation. He knew all of these things would come to us just because this is a fallen world. And so, He sent something better to come to us and to walk with us through it. Sorrows come, but then God came. God Himself came in the person of Jesus, and this presence is stronger than the presence of any sorrows that we'll ever face.

One thing that has stuck with me in every season is that the seasons may come and go. They'll come to us, but God walks through them with us. He's with us in Jesus. His unfailing love has come to us and walks us through the valleys. And on the other side of the valleys, He's going to walk us into resurrection life. In Jesus, God's compassion has come near and shepherded us. That has been one of the most beautiful things that I've learned over the years. A theme, like a chorus in the song of my life, is that life to the full is God's presence walking with us, no matter the season, no matter the outcome, no matter whether it goes our way or not ... God Himself is with us. God Himself has given us His presence and His nearness and His promise about resurrection on the other side of the story.

I love that it's not just life to the full on the days that we're just feeling like we are walking in our calling, in our purpose. It is life to the full. It is the fullness of God's presence in the full spectrum of what it means to be a human. Whatever it is, no matter how it turns out, it is not the end of the story because Jesus walks with us into resurrection glory one day. In the valley, we're not alone. We have a Shepherd right beside us. That is life to the full. That's something you can bank on, whether you're in a great season or in a hard one. Life to the full isn't like the outcome. It's not every outcome you've ever wanted. Life to the full is God giving you Himself.

And I am so grateful that in the full spectrum of what it means to be human, on our best days on the mountaintops, when we are walking fully in our calling and feeling alive in every way, to our deepest valleys of pain, when we find it hard to get out of bed, much less hold on to any of God's promises ... When you are with Him, there is no season that can overtake you, and you're always with Him. He's always with you. Isn't that what we all want? Being able to face any season with that kind of confidence, and we can. We have life to the full because we have God, and He's better than any agenda we have or any outcome we want. His presence is more precious, and more powerful than anything else in this life. And His presence will shepherd us into the next life safe and sound.

That's what I love about God's Word. It's a reminder of this truth whenever we need it. And that is why I wrote about Psalm 119 in this expanded edition of my Fighting Words Devotional. I added it to the content you can only get in that edition of the book because it is the verse that's printed beautifully in gold in the back of the devotional, and I realized I had not really told the story of what this passage has meant to me in my life, but it outlines why God's Word really is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Psalm 119 reminds us that God's Word brings us back to God's presence, and it reminds us of the power we have in it as our shelter when we're in a storm. We don't need a better outcome. We don't necessarily need a different set of circumstances, though God might swoop in and change some things. Ultimately, y'all, we need God. We need His presence. And God's Word gives us that reminder and helps us hear God speaking directly to us in the midst of the wind and the waves.

The perfect life in a fallen world really is out of reach. Perfection is possible on the other side of this world story, but it's just not going to be perfect right now. Even though the picture-perfect life is out of reach, here's the good news. God is not. God's presence is life to the full, and His presence is well within reach for every single one of us. He gives us Himself in every single season, and He will never forsake us ... as deep as the pain of being human in this broken world can take us. God's Word reminds us that love, that His love, is a deeper well. And I pray that we'll all take God up on that promise to bury His Word in our heart so that we might experience it and believe it and walk in it so that we might carry around lanterns in our hearts that we have access to even in the darkest nights of our souls.

I've learned that for me, the way to return to this truth is not just reading God's Word, though that is super important, but it has been so powerful for me to memorize God's Word. And let me just be real honest with y'all. I am not the best at this. I've tried a million different ways, but I do think it is so important for all of us to stick with it, even when we're bad at it, and I am at the front of that line, LOL.

Here's why I want us to memorize God's Word. It has been a transformative practice for me. Even when I'm failing, when I feel like I'm failing to do it well at all, spending time just seeping my mind and my heart in God's Word as I try to commit it to memory has absolutely changed me from the inside out. Memorizing God's Word hasn't necessarily changed my circumstances, but it has given me solid ground to stand on when the shame storms roll in. And I long for that for each one of you. And so, just like a tea bag that you would steep and let sit in hot water, let us sit in the warmth and the light and the hope of God's Word, and try to bury it deep in our hearts so that it is with us no matter what we're facing.

So I've included a lot of the strategies that have helped me memorize Scripture over the years. In my Fighting Words Devotional, there are 10 beautifully printed art pieces with the passages to memorize together. I find that I almost always need a visual when I'm trying to bury God's Word in my heart. A lot of times, I would write little notecards and put them on my fridge or on my mirror, at my sink or in my car. And so, I wanted to make sure in the devotional that we also printed these verses for you to have a visual.

I find that there are also lines next to the art print, where you can try rewriting the verse over and over until you have it down, or where you could record the ways that God has brought that passage to mind in your day-to-day life and how it's helped you ground yourself. Holding tight to those passages of Scripture and even singing them aloud has saved me in so many different seasons of my life and reminded me of God's presence and love in the moments I probably would've forgotten otherwise.

And maybe it's because I'm a singer-songwriter, but what I have found to be the most helpful in memorizing Scripture is to try to sing it. I'm on Instagram every week, singing Scripture so I can try to bury some truth and some light in my heart. And I love singing God's Word with other brothers and sisters in Christ. For whatever reason, it has been the most helpful tool in getting God's promises to stick in my head and in my heart. So, when I added some of these like “lifer verses” to my extended devotional — my grandmother calls them “lifer verses” — because those are the verses that you ... the ones that you go to. If they were stones in your pocket, they'd be smooth from how many times you've gone to grab on to them.

And when they asked me to do an extended version of the devotional, I realized there were some lifer verses that I had not added. So, when I added some of these lifer verses like Psalm 119:105 to my new extended Fighting Words Devotional, I didn't just write about more Scripture that has helped ground me and bring me hope. I wanted to sing those Scriptures. So I recorded an album of songs so other people can sing along with me as we all try to hold on to the light and Truth from God's Word together.

So every new verse that I added to the extended edition of Fighting Words has a song to go with it to help anyone who wants to bury the light of these promises deep in their heart. And I want to invite you to sing them along with me. These songs, from the new Psalms and some other classic Psalms already included in the devotional, are gathered in my new album, a Psalms record called All of My Days, and it is just straight up singing Scripture.

I've had the privilege of co-writing songs with King David all of these years, and I love it so much. I love the idea of all of us walking up to the darkness in our own hearts and into the darkness in this weary world and singing the Truth and light from God's Word together into those dark places, to hold on to the lamp that God gives us, to hold on to the Word, to the light of His Word, that He gives us. These passages bring me straight back into the throne room of God so that He might wash over me with His presence and His spirit.

So I suppose one practical way to remember how we all return to life to the full is simply to return to the deep well of God's Word. And I invite anyone who wants to bury more of God's light and love in their heart to memorize those passages along with me, regardless of if you buy the book or not. That is not the point of this at all. My invitation is simply to memorize God's Word and to let it lead you back to His heart and His presence in your current season. I've offered a way to do that with my devotional, with the Psalms album, but my true hope and longing is just for you to hide God's Word in your heart, however you can. Doing that has given me fighting words on the days that I have needed them the most. And I pray anyone listening to this will find light and life and truth in holding on to whatever their favorite passages of Scripture are.

God is with us in the journey. We are not alone. His presence is the way that we experience life to the full. It's our balm, our comfort, our help, our strong refuge. And we can run to it anytime we need to. Oh, God, help us hold on to Your promises, and thank You that as we do that, we realize that Your promises are always holding on to us. Would You help us experience the fullness of Your presence and the full spectrum of what it means to be a human on the days where we are just thriving and walking in joy and feeling alive and, Father, especially on the days when we are in the valley, when we are in the dark, heavy places where it feels really hard to believe that Your promises are true. Would You help us experience Your presence there? And I thank You that You are always with us. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Meredith Brock:

Amen. Ellie, thank you so much for sharing your heart and your journey as you have so well put ... experienced those weary seasons, like the Psalmist says at the beginning of Psalm 119. I think it is such a comfort to see in Scripture that the human experience is a full spectrum. It's not God's expectation of ... our experience isn't just this one-minute experience but that it is seasons of grief and seasons of joy and seasons of exhaustion.

And I love how you truly challenged us to redefine what life to the full, full, means. I think in our Western mindset and culture, full ... When we hear the word “full,” at least I ... And this is a confession: I think full, and I think materialistic things; life to the full is a comfortable home and a comfortable mode of transportation, whether that's a car or whatever, and the things that I want and the people in my life that I want. It's this consumeristic, materialistic mentality, because that's what our world has taught us, our culture has taught us.

And I love that you're redefining that ... that full is full of the knowing of God in your life. Full is the intimacy of knowing our Creator. And I couldn't help but, while you were teaching, Ellie, think about ... I know a lot of our listeners, we get messages, and we hear a lot from our audience about what they're struggling with. Excuse me. And I know a lot of our listeners are weary. They're tired, Ellie, and whether that be from weathering storms of broken family relationships or medical diagnoses or [being] simply exhausted because they have multiple children, and they're trying to juggle it all, and your devotional is such a good tool for them in those weary seasons to come back, to use as a source of coming back to the true fullness that we need. But I was curious ... I'm going to guess we've got some friends listening right now, and they may be in the car driving, because this was the only moment that they have to themselves that day.
Ellie Holcomb: That's the mamas and the papas [inaudible].

Meredith Brock:

And these words probably, my guess, are hitting hard, and they're going, "That's me. I'm exhausted. I'm so tired and weary, and I want life to the full so bad. But I fall into bed at the end of the day, and reading a devotional, even that, feels far out of reach for me right now." Ellie, what would you say to them? Is there another ... I really do think the devotional ... I mean I spent time with edition number one that you wrote, and it was so impactful, so impactful here at Proverbs [31 Ministries]. We did a whole study of it. But where ... I just want to speak to her right now as she's listening to this and going, "That's me. I'm exhausted. I am so weary, and I am not full of Jesus's presence right now." What would you say to her? What would you speak over her as she's processing this?

Ellie Holcomb:

Well, just first of all, you are not alone. You are not alone. So, I don't know ... Sometimes it's just really helpful, and I mean I talked about it earlier, but just reading, the way the Psalms ... The Psalmists often wrestle with God, and they are like, "I am exhausted. Where are you, God? Help me remember; help me hold on to Your Word." Which is just a comfort to me that people have been struggling to hold on to hope for a long time. So, you are not alone in that. And then I would just encourage you to do whatever you can to hold on to the hope.

And I think that's why, I think for me, a lot of days when I'm weary and I cannot pick up God's Word, or I do not have time, there's nothing ... It's like I used to think about quiet times, or call them quiet times, and I'm like, "There is not really many hours or minutes in my house that are ever quiet" — if that makes any sense. We're going, it's loud, there's people, and I'm exhausted a lot of days. And so, I guess I would just say I highly recommend trying to memorize one Scripture and to go back to that over and over and over again. It's part of what I love about memorizing Scripture, because I can come to that. Even if I don't have space or time to open my Bible and read and pray and journal, I can hold on to the light.

And as I hold on to the light from God's Word, that generally ... And sometimes it takes a while for it to break in, but as I am repeating it and holding on to that promise, what starts happening is my whole perspective starts shifting, and it sort of starts to change the environment of my heart. I remember being in line the other day, and it was a really long line, and I was feeling so frustrated, and then I was remembering: "You will keep in perfect peace with him who is steadfast because he trusts in You" (Isaiah 26:4, NIV, paraphrased). "Trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ forever, for the Lᴏʀᴅ, the Lᴏʀᴅ [himself], is the Rock eternal" (Isaiah 26:4, NIV).

And I do it to that ... Isaiah 26:3 and 4, boom, boom, boom. And I am like, I am not in perfect peace right now. And this is not a perfectly peaceful environment. This line is taking forever. But You say You will keep in perfect peace him who is steadfast because he trusts in You. So I'm going to trust in You to work perfect peace in me right now, even though I do not have perfect peace. And that same verse the other day ... When my husband was out of town, I didn't know how to parent my kids; all three of them needed different shepherding of their hearts. Do you know what I'm saying?

Kaley Olson:

Meredith does.

Meredith Brock:

All three of mine needed shepherding a lot last night, Ellie.

Ellie Holcomb:

Lord, Lord, be their Shepherd ... be my Shepherd. How am I supposed to shepherd all three hearts at once? And that same verse came to mind. "You will keep in perfect peace with him who is steadfast because he trusts in you" (Isaiah 26:4, NIV, paraphrased). So I took a deep breath, and I was holding on to that passage of Scripture that I memorized, y'all, starting in high school. I was just sending a video to my choir director in high school who helped us memorize that verse and sing it. She was one of the people who taught me to sing Scripture. And man, y'all, it shifted into me, because it reminded me that I'm not alone.

I'm not shepherding my kids' hearts alone. And God says that He will give me perfect peace if I trust in Him. And so, I'm going to take a deep breath and choose to trust in Him even though I have no idea how to parent my kids right now, and I'm going to ask Him for help and remember that I'm not alone. And that is one ... Even explaining it is faster than the comfort that it brought me. Does that make any sense?

Meredith Brock:

Yeah.

Ellie Holcomb:

So, it been really ... We were having a rough afternoon the other day, and I'm just listening to this test vinyl of this, the Psalms record that I made; one of the songs that I recorded is Psalm 23. And it's like, "Walk me by the quiet waters. Lay me down in your green pastures. Be my shepherd, be my comfort, in the valleys low." And everybody was at each other's throats, and I'm like, God, help us rest in a green pasture right now. Lord Jesus, my family needs a green pasture right now. Bring it. And there is something about holding on to that. And sometimes I'll make my kids ... I'm like, invite my kids to sing it with me, and it shifts the environment.

And I love that God promises ... that His Word is alive. A, the Word, like the Bible, and so why would we not bury that in our hearts and try to hold on to it? And, y'all, I'm saying this to myself, because I forget that I can do it a lot. So I just want you to hear that. But then, not only do we have God's actual words and His promises we can hold on to that remind us that we don't walk through any valley or any exhausted place alone, but we have the living Word, Jesus, with us, the Spirit that guides us into all truth. And so, if you are exhausted, if you're in the car listening to me like, "I cannot do this alone. I am so weary," I just ... "Come to me, all you [who] are weary and [heavy] burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NIV). You do not have to carry this alone.

I've been holding on to Isaiah. The last one that I was singing on Instagram ... I think it's this week, or maybe it was last week; I can't remember. This week is Psalm 103, but Psalm ... Not Psalm, sorry, Isaiah 45:3 says, "I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness, secret riches, so that you may know that I am the Lord your God, the God of Israel who calls you by name" (paraphrased). And so, I guess, I just want to invite you to keep your eyes open. If you are walking in a valley, if you're walking in a dark season, God promises that there are treasures for you even in that season, specifically in the darkness, because He knows we'll walk through the dark days, and that He would give you eyes to see those.

And ultimately, our treasure hidden in the darkness, our buried treasure, is Jesus Himself, who was buried for us and walked up out of the grave, so we could know that whatever low place we're in, He's already been there. He's gone before us, and He's with us, and He comes behind us. And this season in your life is not the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end, because in the end, everything's going to be all right, because He's going to walk us into the resurrected, healed, whole life where every tear is wiped away from every eye. But I heard Tish Warren ... Do y'all know her?

Meredith Brock:

Yeah. Yes.

Ellie Holcomb:

She's so wonderful. I was reading one of her books, and she was saying that every tear is wiped away from every eye. That promise that we have when God returns and makes all things new, I love ... She sort of leans into that idea, and she says, "If every tear is wiped away from every eye, maybe that means that before we kind of enter into that promised land, that we have one last long final cry with Jesus."

Meredith Brock:

Wow.

Ellie Holcomb:

Cry for everything that we didn't do right, with all the mistakes that we made, with all the hurt, and the wounds that were caused and put on us, with all the pain that we suffered, for every single thing that we've lost, we have one last long final cry to acknowledge, "Yeah, that was all so hard. I didn't understand how that happened." And He sits there and cries with us and wipes them away, and He says, No more. Everything sad is becoming untrue here.

And so, it is like this life to the full that we kind of want, that we think it means, for me, I think I ... And I just want to say to you, if you're exhausted, I think I have known the fullness of God's love and the empathy of God and the mercy of God; I have known it more, not in spite of the valley seasons of my life but because of them. Because Jesus is there. And if you can't find God, my friend, Nightbirde says it like this — she passed away from cancer, but she was so sick and so nauseous for so long when she was walking through all her chemo, and maybe that's where you are right now — and she said, "If you can't find God, look lower. God is right there on the bathroom floor."

Meredith Brock:

Wow.

Kaley Olson:

Wow.

Ellie Holcomb:

And I think the Psalms speak to that. It is just like, I mean you see it all over Psalm 119. It's like, "Save me, for I am Yours" (Psalm 119:94, NIV). "The wicked are waiting to destroy me" — that's verse 95. It's all over here. And so you're not alone in the suffering. You're not alone in the ache, you're not alone in the longing, and you're not alone when you're on the bathroom floor.

Meredith Brock:

That's right. That's right. Thank you, Ellie, for speaking that over our friends, and our listeners here, because I know so many of them are in those dark, hard seasons and trying to hold on to hope. And I think you've really handed them some tools to hold on and see the goodness of God even in the valley. So, thank you for coming on the show today, Ellie.

Like I said earlier, I have personally walked through your Fighting Words Devotional, and it was so refreshing to me. It helped me hold on to hope in a dark season. So, I really want to encourage our listeners to grab this newest, expanded, limited edition. I know I'm going to, because I don't want to miss out on the new stuff. It includes 10 new bonus devotions and makes the perfect devotional resource for you personally, or I'd really recommend it's great for a friend, y'all. I have a few friends that are, I would say, just starting out on their walk with the Lord, and this has been a gift I've given them as they've learned Scripture. They've never really been able to memorize Scripture before, and this is such a good gift to give to somebody. So, we've linked it for all of our listeners in the show notes, so be sure to grab your copy today.

Kaley Olson:

It's so pretty too.

Meredith Brock:

It is beautiful.

Kaley Olson:

Ellie, I was looking at it online the other day, and I was like, "This would be so [good] on a bookshelf."
Meredith Brock: It is ... it's beautiful.

Kaley Olson:

I want it for my bookshelf, or for your mom.

Ellie Holcomb:

I love it, because they put gold foil on it, so it literally reflects the light. And I just think, Man, what an amazing thing to come together. It has been such an honor and a privilege to come together with women and men and literally bury light in our hearts.

Kaley Olson:

It's beautiful.

Ellie Holcomb:

Because it's dark out there. And so, I love the idea of us carrying the light around, and I love that we get to do it together, that we're not alone in trying to do that. So, thank y'all for letting me come on here and spend time with you. And if you are a mom with not a lot of time, I will say I did try to make the devotionals not too long.

Kaley Olson:

I can attest to that.

Meredith Brock:

That was wise. Yeah.

Kaley Olson:

I can attest to that. They are very —

Ellie Holcomb:

You could lengthen out and write and journal longer, but if you're like, "I need to get it quick," it's not going to take you that long each day. Praise Him.

Kaley Olson:

No, it is not. But speaking of things that you don't want to take long every single day, I've been learning a lot about stacking small rhythms, which I think, Ellie, you spoke to, and not using those words, but the practical advice you gave at the end when you were like, "Just memorize one Scripture. Just start there." That's like a small thing you can stack that can make a really big difference.

But another thing that I want to point out for our listeners is something we've linked in the show notes from Lysa TerKeurst called “The Prayer I Pray Every Morning,” and this is absolutely free, but I just think about first thing in the morning rhythms. And when you're in a season where you feel like really low, and you're like, "I just can't start from zero every single morning and think of something new to pray." If you're there, I've been there. Absolutely. And you guys can print off this resource, tuck it in your Bible, tuck it in the devotional that you're going to buy from Ellie, or stick it on your nightstand. And when you wake up in the morning, pray the same prayer every day. Get into Scripture, memorize Scripture, and see what that does in your life. So, we've linked Ellie's devotional, this resource from Lysa, and a few other things in the show notes that you guys can grab for yourself after you listen.

Meredith Brock:

All right, well, that's it for us today, friends, at Proverbs 31 Ministries. We help you know the Truth and live that Truth, because it really will change everything for you.